Kinshasa was a village on the south bank of the Congo when Stanley passed through in 1877. He returned in 1881 and established Leopoldville on the banks of contemporary Kintambo and Ngaliema. A post was opened upriver at Kinshasa in 1883. In 1923 Leopoldville was named the capital, comprising both Kinshasa and Leopoldville, established at Kalina (now Gombe), while "old" Leopoldville remained the capital of the Province. The Leopoldville-Kinshasa agglomeration was renamed Kinshasa in 1966.

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

I
had an opportunity to return to Kinshasa last week and see how things have
evolved since I attended the TASOK Reunion in June 2011 (July 3, 2011). There is a bit of “plus ça change, plus
c'est la même chose” about Kinshasa, but there is definitely change. I stayed at the Memling Hotel (Mar. 29, 2011). The constant passage of shoe shiners
clicking their boxes on the street below sounded like horse-drawn carts on
cobbled streets, of which the latter can still be found in this part of Kinshasa
(June 18, 2012).

Ave. Plateau, looking towards the Boulevard

First, an
update on Boulevard du 30e Juin (Jan.23, 2011). The
eight-lane highway handles a huge volume of traffic as the primary east-west artery
serving the downtown. It can be
congested at peak times in the day, but traffic moves smoothly for the most
part. The placement of brick-colored
sidewalk tiles being laid last year is largely completed from Socimat
intersection to the Gare Centrale, providing a boon to Kinshasa’s majority
pedestrian population. The square
emplacements for trees placed at regular intervals along the sidewalk, however,
remain empty and have become targets for tossing trash. I hope the municipal authorities will
take advantage of the upcoming rainy season to plant trees along the Boulevard
to restore the stately lines of the Limba
trees planted in the mid-1950s when the Boulevard was first constructed.

Boulevard du 30e Juin -- sidewalks

There
are stop lights on the Boulevard. High
tech affairs which show direction permitted and time remaining before the light
changes, as well as time for pedestrian crossing. There appear to be two schools of thought on
this development among Kinois. One
group, by no means minority, behaves as if these directions should be complied
with. A second faction, holdouts from a
different era, still run lights or dash across the road against the light. I heard numerous critical observations of
such behavior by pedestrians as we stood waiting patiently for our light. Even where there are no stoplights, drivers
will stop for pedestrians as they venture across the zebra crossings.

Blvd. 30e Juin & Ave. Port

Does
this blog have any influence in Kinshasa’s development or is it just a
nostalgia buff’s preoccupation with Lipopo
and Kin-la-belle? In the series on
hotels in March last year (Mar. 27, 2011), I looked at the second Hotel
Stanley, which served as the French Embassy for 50 years until it relocated to
UtexAfrica last year (July 3, 2011).
Since its construction in the late 1950s, the hotel presented an unadorned
back-side to the Boulevard. Now,
an investor is completing an engaging 4-story “flat-iron” office building in
the triangle converging on 30e Juin.

New construction on Blvd. 30e Juin & Ave. Plateau - former French Embassy in background

In
March this year, I featured the dilapidated and featureless former office of
the L.C. Gillespie company on Ave. Ebeya (Mar.14, 2012). In the 1920s, Gillespie was the local
representative of the Ford Motor Company.
Recently, AMC opened a Ford showroom there. Plus ca change…

The Ford dealership on Ave. Ebeya

Returning
to the Boulevard, the building on the site of the former Albertum Cinema (and later Cinemax), which
I found suspended last year, is now rising above the Boulevard in an engaging,
semi-circular structure, said to be a hotel built by former President of the
Federation des Entreprises Congolaises (the Chamber of Commerce),
Kinduelo. The structure presents a
new face on the Boulevard while at the same time maintaining scale with its
neighbors and the Hotel de Postes across the street.

Cinema Cinemax, ex-Albertum on the Boulevard

New building on Blvd. 30e Juin

Down
the street from the Kinduelo project, in front of the Police office occupying
the old Cercle de Kinshasa (Mar. 19, 2011), a sign promotes the “Hub d’Affaires
du Leopoard Volant”. Given the
location, I declined to pull out my camera, but it appears to be the
resurrection of the Claude Laurens’ Hotel Aviamar complex (Aug. 15, 2011). The “Leopard Volant” refers to Lignes
Aeriennes Congolaises (Air Congo) and the proposed project promises a 7-star
hotel, 300 offices, 1500 parking spaces, an Olympic swimming pool, as well as residential
and commercial space. I was not
able to find anything about the project on an initial search of the web,
however.

Congolese
music, Congo Jazz, is experiencing a return to its roots. Contempoary musician Koffi Olomide
recently organized a concert to recognize veteran musician Tabu Ley. He now has a concert planned to interpret
and commemorate the late Franco Luambo Makiadi’s music.

On
this trip, I made a point of visiting the Botanical Garden a few blocks from
downtown (Feb. 6, 2011). Created in
1933, the park experienced a decline as a haven for street children and
prostitutes until its rehabilitation in June 2010 as part of the 50th
Independence Anniversary celebration.
I paid my Fr.2000 ex-pat entrance fee and entered an urban oasis of
greenery and calm on the edges of Kinshasa’s frenetic urban scene. The garden continues to be
well-maintained and workers were watering and tending to the plants. It also attracts impassioned believers
who audibly and earnestly profess their faith among the shrubbery. I found the
same phenomenon at the National Arboretum in Nairobi where I lived before moving back to
Congo this year.